vultures in Adelmonte’s country); this bird darts on the dead fowl, and
carries it away to a rock, where it dines off its prey. Three days
afterwards, this poor vulture, which has been very much indisposed since
that dinner, suddenly feels very giddy while flying aloft in the clouds,
and falls heavily into a fish-pond. The pike, eels, and carp eat
greedily always, as everybody knows—well, they feast on the vulture. Now
suppose that next day, one of these eels, or pike, or carp, poisoned at
the fourth remove, is served up at your table. Well, then, your guest
will be poisoned at the fifth remove, and die, at the end of eight or
ten days, of pains in the intestines, sickness, or abscess of the
pylorus. The doctors open the body and say with an air of profound
learning, ‘The subjec
